In one of the weirder cruise stories I have read in a time, Carnival Cruise Lines kicked off a passenger scheduled to speak on a "low carb diet" cruise on suspicion that he was going to explode dynamite or release Legionnaires virus on the ship.

The bizarre case involves a neurosurgeon from Tennessee who, ironically enough, is named Dr. Kruse (I'm not making this up). Jack Kruse is a popular diet guru / motivational speaker and lost some 130 lbs himself. He was suppose to be one of the speakers on a diet cruise aboard an the Magic cruise ship operated by Carnival.

But instead of sailing last Sunday afternoon out of Galveston, Dr. Kruse found his cabin being searched and being interrogated by Galveston police, Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard. When it was all over, Carnival security removed his luggage from the ship and escorted him to the now empty pier. He had to fetch a taxi and pay for an unanticipated flight back home.

It turns out that Dr. Kruse has some mischievous enemies on Twitter. A twitter user named @shitkrusesays (now deleted) tweeted: "Security confiscated dynamite. talk won't be as explosive as at PaleoFx. still have vial of Legionnaires for epic biohack"

Dr. Kruse had no connection to that Twitter account, but that did not stop the police from searching his computers and turning his cabin upside down.

In addition, Carnival was contacted by a caller named "Lance" who informed them a doctor aboard the Carnival Magic was planning a viral bio-hack.

Dr. Kruse says that eventually the FBI, Homeland Security and the Coast Guard were convinced that the incident was a hoax, but the Captain of the cruise ship exercised his discretion to send Dr. Kruse from the ship.

The following day Carnival contacted Dr. Kruse and offered to fly him to Montego Bay to meet up with the cruise he missed. The doctor declined the offer. The captain of the ship also sent a letter to the pssengers explaining the situation (below).

Meanwhile, the FBI is supposedly investigating who was behind the malicious tweets from @shitkrusesays.

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Comments (7)Read through and enter the discussion with the form at the end

Toni -
May 8, 2012 1:36 PM

Did Carnival really expect Dr. Kruse to come aboard with them after they treated him like a terrorist? I guess their intentions were good but maybe they should have done a little more research/investigating before they kicked him off the ship like that.

I feel badly for the people who are on the cruse to hear him speak. I am sure he is not the only speaker but my understanding was he was to be the primary speaker of the trip. A lot of people paid good money to hear him. I know if I attended I would demand my money back.

I wonder what Carnival has to say to all the unhappy people missed Dr Kruse's speach.

I read with interest your story about Dr. Kruse's expulsion from the Carnival cruise ship. This was no doubt a terrible and embarrassing experience for him, but your article neglected to mention several important parts of the story. As a follower of the "paleosphere", I've become somewhat familiar with Dr. Kruse's antics over the last several months and fear that this latest stunt is just another publicity grab. The "Tweet" in question came from a parody account that had been in operation for at least several weeks and that Dr. Kruse was aware of (as several of the followers of the account had "retweeted" its messages to him). The parody account had quite a few fans in the nutrition community, including Jimmy Moore, the head of the low-carb cruise on which Dr. Kruse was scheduled to speak. The majority of the Tweets were direct quotes from Dr. Kruse's writings. These were indicated by quotation marks. Several other Tweets, not surrounded by quotation marks, were written in Kruse's "voice." I don't have the exact text of the offending Tweet in front of me, but it was very clearly not a threat of bioterrorism. In fact, it referred to the fact that Dr. Kruse used a stick of dynamite as a prop at a recent conference talk (at Paleofx in Austin, TX) and claimed in a recent Tedx talk, available on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNEeqCACwo , that he cultured MRSA, a highly dangerous and contagious bacteria, slathered it on his torso, injected himself with it, and then underwent elective surgery (without informing his family, his doctor, or the staff of his own medical practice of his actions until much later). The term "bio hack", used in the Tweet, is one that Dr. Kruse uses frequently to refer to his brand of self-experimentation. It does not refer to acts of terrorism. It is also worth nothing that this "cruise debacle" occurred just on the heels of the news that Dr. Kruse had been suspended last fall by the American Association for Neurological Surgeons (AANS) for lying under oath during a deposition

Since he was removed from the cruise, Dr. Kruse had publicly identified people he considers his enemies, insinuated that they are under investigation by the FBI, and that they will do hard prison time. His claims have been directly contradicted by FBI Agent Baker, who informed several members of the paleo community that while authorities are interested in finding the person who called (or emailed, depending on the news story you read) a threat into the ship, they recognize the Twitter account for what it was--a parody. Nevertheless, Kruse seems determined to bring not just the Twitter account owner, but anyone who contributed to it, to justice (apparently overlooking the fact that 90% of the posts were direct quotes from him). Just yesterday, Kruse posted this barely sensical diatribe on a the website www.freetheanimal, which is run by one of his allies in the paleo community:

"Jack Kruse // May 9, 2012 at 17:42
I have a conundrum here. What was done to me will be found in justice. What kind of justice, I am unsure as yet. But I have a consciousness about the movement that this “twatter" undermined by the actions said. They people who are complicit in this are crafting a message that my response has damaged the movement. Quite the contrary the “twat" opened that can of worms. I have to protect that emotion in spite of my anger, because the movement and helping others is part of my mission. The "respected leaders" have to back “paleo the movement", but neurosurgery pays my bills, so I must protect my house first and foremost. I have hired peopel to do just that on Sunday night as I was driven back to Houston after being removed from the boat. The first person I called was Robb Wolf because I knew what he was crafting was just hit with a torpedo from the "in paleo crowd." . The respected leaders forget to easily, because Paleo pays their bills. But I promise you the “twat" who opened that account will be found and prosecuted in the court of opinion. To those who fed that "twatter" account hire someone now, because the law says if you fed it you own it because of what happened. See consequences do matter when the federal government resources are wasted. And if they choose not do deal with it I have plenty of time and money to follow up to see to it that the rest of this community knows precisely who put our message at risk. When you came after me you opened the door, my response is called defense."

I share this information with you so that you know the story of Dr. Kruse's expulsion from the cruise is likely more complicated than he indicated. Although he has portrayed himself as an innocent victim, he has a long history of bullying people who whom he disagrees, making threats to his critics, including other MDs, in the paleo community, and presenting false medical information to the followers of his forum. Several people have brought him to the attention to the state medical board, though I do not know if he is, in fact, under investigation. Unfortunately, this incident on the cruise has fueled his publicity machine and will likely bring more followers to his website. I would hope that rather than taking his words at face value, they do their due diligence and do a little background research on the man.

Sincerely,

A concerned member of the paleo community (I would happily sign my real name if I weren't concerned about becoming a target of Dr. Kruse, who has now threatened to sue just about everyone who has crossed him)

Anonymous -
June 25, 2012 10:56 AM

Legionnaires desease is caused by and amobia.

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